1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to advertising. More specifically, the invention describes methods of rendering recommended media assets from an on-line merchandiser to a user by employing a handheld media player.
2. Description of Prior Art
A handheld media player stores media assets such as songs and video clips, which can be played on the device. Examples of media players are the iPod from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., the Zen from Creative Technology Ltd, Singapore and the Zune from Microsoft Inc of Redmond, Wash. The handheld media players have gained popularity because of its capability to store large number of media assets in a device, which can be put into a user's pocket when he or she travels.
In order to achieve portability, many handheld media players use minimalist displays that allow the user access to the media assets via simple graphical user interfaces. The large number of media assets are organized in a way of automatic hierarchical categorization by metadata as disclosed in a U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,433 to Goodman and Egan (2005). Robbin et al further disclosed a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface in US patent application 2004/0055446. A user, guided progressively by a user interface from the higher order to the lower order, can select a desired media asset.
A media player acquires typically its media assets from a computer with media management applications, such as the iTunes software, which is a product from Apple Inc. In prior art, the handheld media players are stored with the media assets transferred from a computer. The management of media database, including selection and purchasing of media assets from an on-line merchandiser, is performed with the use of the computer connected to the Internet. The on-line merchandisers have developed methods, such as iTunes from Apple Inc, to display, on a computer display screen, recommended media assets to a user while the user is performing a task related to a specific media item. The recommended media assets are related closely to the item. For example, they may be other albums from the same artist.
A user typically spends more time with handheld media players than with computers for multimedia entertainment experiences. It is desirable that the recommended media assets from an on-line merchandiser are stored in the handheld media players rather than in much less portable computers. Further, the assets should be delivered to the user in an acceptable manner, which does not disrupt the user's experience of using the device for enjoying a media asset.
On the other hand, idle screens of mobile devices have been proposed to render advertisement messages to users of the devices. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,913,040, 6,317,789, 6,539,429 to Rakavy et al disclosed prior arts to utilize an idle screen of a mobile device to display advertisement messages, which are delivered to the user's device without user's notification. The messages are displayed preferably as a screen saver. U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,419 to Martin et al disclosed a method to display useful or commercial information on an idle screen. The idle content screen is switched to a default display screen when a user's input action is received. The default display screen is the gateway for the user to navigate to various application menus of the mobile device. US patent application 2004/0077340 by Forsyth and the application 2006/0156256 by Lee disclosed similar arts to use idle screens for displaying commercial information with the user's programmability on the displayed contents. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,369,864 to Vaananen, an art is disclosed by using of electronic short messaging method to deliver advertisement messages. The user is shown the message automatically, and he or she may delete it or receive further information on it with one single press of a dedicated key.
The prior arts disclosed previously for rendering advertisement messages are targeted for mobile communication devices, wherein the devices are connected to a communication network while in idle status. Handheld media players are mostly without an integrated communication device. Further, media assets consume significant amount of storage capacity in comparison to typical advertisement messages. A user may not prefer the storage capacity in his or her personal device is used to help a merchandiser to sell a commercial media asset.
Accordingly, it is a purpose of the present invention to provide a method to render recommended media assets to a user by employing an idle screen of a media player while an asset that the user owns the right is being played. The recommended asset may be closely related to the asset being played to attract the user's attention.
It is yet another purpose of the present invention to provide a method to render to a user the recommended media assets, which are stored in the unused storage capacity of the player. The unused storage capacity for storing the recommended assets is adjusted dynamically in accordance with the required capacity by the user. The operation is transparent to the user.